Oral Reports
Roles of the Audience
One of the purposes of oral reports is to learn how to use Chinese to elaborate your thoughts and engage in meaningful conversations with your classmates. Listeners will be required to ask the presenter one or two questions at the end. Your participation is expected and will be evaluated.
Grading
| CRITERIAS | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation and tones | 30% |
| Grammar and structures | 30% |
| Content and discourse | 30% |
| Participation | 10% |
A Useful Online Dictionary
Online Chinese-English Talking Dictionary
(Use the online dictionary with caution. It is recommended to know how the words you need are properly used contextually by consulting your teacher or a native speaker.)
Oral Report 1: 自我介绍 (Zìwŏ Jièshào)
Method of Report
- Your presentation should be about 3 minutes long.
- You are to stand in front of the class. You may quickly look at your notes, but don’t read them.
- Feel free to bring any visual aids as you see fit.
*When you prepare for your report, focus on both your accuracy and fluency. Accuracy refers to your tones, pronunciations and grammar while fluency refers to the smoothness of your presentation.
Oral Report 2: 我的春假(Chūnjià: Spring Break)
Method of Report
- Your presentation should be about 3 minutes long.
- You are to stand in front of the class. You may quickly look at your notes, but don’t be tied to them.
- Feel free to make a few PowerPoint slides to facilitate your presentation.
Oral Report 3: 我在麻省理工学院的生活(Shēnghuó: Life)
Method of Report
- Your presentation should be about 3 minutes long.
- You are to stand in front of the class. You may quickly look at your notes, but don’t be tied to them.
- Feel free to make a few PowerPoint slides to facilitate your presentation.
- Limit your use of new vocabulary we haven’t learned up to 8.
Final Oral Interview
Kubler, Cornelius C. Basic Spoken Chinese: An Introduction to Speaking and Listening for Beginners. Tuttle Publishing, 2011. ISBN: 9780804840156.
Materials Coverage: [BSC] Unit 6 to Unit 10
Format
You are going to meet with your instructor individually for 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes are the oral interview and the last 5 minutes are allocated for feedback. The oral interview is composed of two parts—Q&A and role play. In the Q&A, you are expected to respond to your instructor’s questions accurately and fluently. The questions asked are all related to the topics covered from [BSC] Unit 6 to Unit 10. For example:
- Biographical information
- Questions about family
- Getting around in Boston
- Weather
In the role play, you will be given a task (For example, you are asking your friend from Taiwan about its climate in the summer) situated contextually and you are expected to complete a performance with your teacher.
Preparation
While we understand that there are many materials to review, we suggest you start with all the sentence patterns in each lesson, followed by going over the conversations and then the vocabulary. Remember, this is an Oral Interview, so always think about how you can use each pattern contextually.
Grading
Your grade consists of the following components:
| CRITERIAS | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation / Tones | 30% |
| Language Usage | 30% |
| Fluency | 40% |
Last Words
The purpose of Final Oral Interview is to give you an opportunity to reflect and demonstrate what you can achieve with the efforts you have strenuously put into CHN II. We are confident that this will be a rewarding experience for you. So work hard, relax, and enjoy!
